self-sufficiency which he himself had never known to exist, nor regarded
as aught but sober truth. It had been his bane, that he had been always
too sensible to betray outwardly his self-conceit, in any form that
could lead to its being noticed.

He opened the church door, closed it behind him, and locked himself in.

He came up to the communion rail, where he had knelt for the first time
twelve years ago, confident in himself, and unconscious of the fears
with which his father's voice was trembling in the intensity of his
prayer for one in whom there was no tangible evil, and whom others
thought a pattern of all that could be desired by the fondest hopes.

He knelt down, with bowed head, and hands clasped. Assuredly, if his
father could have beheld him then, it would have been with rejoicing. He
would not have sorrowed that robust frame was wasted, and great strength
brought low; that the noble features were worn, the healthful cheek
pale, and the powerful intellect clouded and weakened; he would hardly
have mourned for the cruel grief and suffering, such would have been
his joy that the humble, penitent, obedient heart had been won at last.
Above all, he would have rejoiced that the words that most soothed that
wounded spirit were,--'A broken and contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not
despise.'

There was solace in that solemn silence; the throbs of head and heart
were stilled in the calm around. It was as if the influences of the
prayers breathed for him by his father, and the forgiveness and loving
spirit there won by Guy, had been waiting for him there till he came to
take them up, for thenceforth the bitterest of his despair was over, and
he could receive each token of Amabel's forgiveness, not as heaped coals
of fire, but as an earnest of forgiveness sealed in heaven.

The worst was over, and though he still had much to suffer, he was
becoming open to receive comfort; the blank dark remorse in which he had
been living began to lighten, and the tone of his mind to return.

He spoke more cheerfully to Susan when he restored the key; but she had
been so shocked at his appearance, that when, the next day, a report
reached her that Mr. Philip was now a grand gentleman, and very rich,
she answered,--

'Well, if it be so, I am glad of it, but he said never a word of it to
me, and it is my belief he would give all the money as ever was coined,
to have the poor young gentleman back again. Depend upon it, he hates
t